>> good evening, commissioners. i am the school resource officer a central police station and i am not a native san franciscan. [laughter] the central police advisory board recommended a program to deal with issues that some students in our district were having. they believe that some of the students are fearful of police and had a negative image of police and did not trust the police. i, along with a former assistant principal, and now deputy chief, who was commanding officer, we implemented a program to address the issues brought to our attention.

our goal was to have 200 students participate in the program. as part of the program, i made a classroom presentation. i told the students about myself and my family, about jobs i worked in prior to becoming a police officer and the assignments since becoming an officer. the week following the presentation, students with the signs were brought to the police station on a field trip. when they arrived at the station, and they were addressed by the then-captain who will come to them to the station. he talked to them about officers and the relationships we wanted to have with them. the students got to engage with the officers on duty and got to sit inside a police car, listen to radio communication, and ask questions about the station.

i followed up with another presentation, i spoke about the internet and personal safety. i continued to visit the school and interact with the students until the end of the year. i informed principals in other schools about the program. they wanted to participate. a lot of elementary schools participated. we ended up with 550 four students participating in the presentation -- 554 students participating in the presentation. at the end of the year, dennis chiu asked his students who have participated in the program a series of questions regarding their interaction with the police. one of the questions was, did

the field trip help you understand the police better? of the 98 students who responded, 92 said yes. i have a summary of our program for each member of the commission. i call a program steps -- safety, trust, education by police and schools. -- in schools. hopefully this will give you a better overall view of the program. there is also my contact information. if you've any questions or suggestions, feel free to contact me. thank you for giving me time to be part of this meeting. >> our next speaker you heard a great deal about today.

i was almost say it goes without introduction but i would like to introduce you officer johnson. >> good evening. this is tough because everybody talked about what i wanted to talk about. i will be brief. i am currently stationed at bay view. my assignment has been at the boys' and girls' club. my personal goal is to build relationships with the kids, build confidence in them, and help them achieve whatever it is they want to achieve now and in the future. i will give you a couple of examples of what i have done. there was a lady whose dream was

to attend a certain high school. but it was not a reality for her for various reasons. but with a little motivation, we walked her through the application process, attended orientations with her and her family, supported her as she took the test, she got in. she is doing pretty good. she is playing lacrosse on junior varsity. she is on a freshman. another story, the gentleman who was only a tent on a tuesday. he is a phenomenal athlete. that is the only time he would attend. i saw him on that -- and i said have you ever thought about going to college. what are your plans? the kind of laughed at me. -- he kind of laughed at me.

he came and we talked about the reality of him attending college. he saw that it was a reality so we have been taking the necessary action to get him prepared for college. he is doing a good in high school. he is a phenomenal athlete. making a few phone calls, i had a buddy of mine who used to be in the nfl come and talk to the kids. seeing how he performs, and they were impressed. we have a couple of football camps we will be attending this summer. a lot of schools, a few schools are starting to be interested. like the gentleman said, there

is a softball tournaments, the healthy family day, we have 200 people attending. it was a major success. they were doing mazuma -- zumba, belly dancing, having a good time. another thing i did was we made a commercial. i was in the commercial and it was basically talking about how bling is not good. i believe the dvd will be coming out soon. i can get it for you. i warn you i am no denzel. [laughter] the things we're doing in the future, i have been talking to various faith-based groups in the southeast sector of the

city. we are trying to put together a basketball league right now. we do not know how possible is the this summer because of funding but if we're not able to do with this summer, we want to do it next summer. thank you. [applause] >> of this time i would like to bring up from the special victims unit, jason fox to present juvenile debt -- justice data. >> commissioners, all of these presentations and all of these often not -- officers who have spoken talked about specialized training and the special ways we go out of our way to make sure the interaction is engaging.

it gives a snapshot of some of the informal and formal ways we train our officers within the context of criminal enforcement and being a good member of the community. the culture shift that has occurred is very far reaching and is a change in how the officers engage with youth and all of san francisco. it has also had an impact on the criminalization of the youth. the department recognizes it cannot arrest our way out of the program and we have embraced a policy who has been carried forward by the chief with an emphasis on a diversion and using incarceration as a last resort. there is a senior member who told a story in a meeting. he is a proponent and says he was at his table, reading a newspaper article and talked about how use were detained for

burglary. they had burglarized and establishment. three of them were being used as look out. the fourth had committed the crime. he said he got a smile on his face when he read that the story ended by explaining that one of them, had been booked into the juvenile justice center and the other three were identified and restored to other models. it is a nice story. there is lot of them out there. it shows that how we as police officers interact and engage with youth. especially within the context of placing offenders into custody. this slide shows a dramatic decrease in the number of youths that have been amended in the juvenile justice center over the last eight years.

this is a powerful set of numbers as it becomes a representative of the number of the youths that have not been institutionalized and it shows that our commitment as a police department to interacting engaging on many different levels and our commitment to not try to arrest our way out of issues. the statistics correlate well with the lower numbers of the gamng involvement in violence against the youth. i will stop there. >> thank you, lieutenant fox. i would like to bring back our future training plans. >> i will be sure to keep it short. it is past my bedtime. as you heard, of all of the

programs we have, we are not resting on our laurels. that is what i want you to understand. we continue to find programs and ways to give our officers the best training they could have. in these economic times, it is important we find the things that are economically feasible and assam. right now, the captain is flying to seattle, washington and to learn about a program for crisis intervention fourteens and youth. it is an eight hour class. he will learn about mental health systems and disorders, and intervention skills, also communication techniques and services for youth. she will bring that back and we will send more people up there. this is free. is something we can use to train our officers. i will give it back to captain

perry. he wants to give the closing remarks. >> thank you. in conclusion, and thank you for your attention. we would like to close with a powerful video that sends a message of hope to our city's lgtb youth. -- lgbt youth.

>> we are excited to see it again. [inaudible] ♪ >> i am a sgt. >> i am a commander. >> i am a 911 dispatcher. >> my name is michelle martina's and i am a commander with the police department. >> i am a police officer. >> i am an officer with the san francisco police. >> i grew up in new york city. >> houston, texas. my father was a sicilian. >> my mother is a catholic.

>> my mom is from japan. >> i was a bit of a tomboy. a full-fledged tomboy. >> it got awkward and strange because i had to start trying to act and look like one. >> my choice of dress was always in jeans and converse tennis shoes. i was always checking out of the girls. >> i had close friendships with my girlfriends. hiding from my senior prom date. >> there was never somebody i could talk to because i thought i was different. >> i already knew by five that i should keep it on the download. >> i knew, absolutely. >> i was not honest with myself for my family. >> you are ways with that idea you are supposed to have a family. >> find the man of your dreams

who will support you. >> grow up and get married. >> i would have a wife, children, a picket fence. >> i did not have any positive gay role models that i thought were out there. >> all of the imagery that was associated with gays and lesbians was as a hairdresser, some when you were supposed to laugh at. >> i did not have anything that showed me it was ok to be who i am. >> i had times where i did not want to get out of bed or face the day. >> i think that i wanted to not

be around. >> i had thoughts of suicide. i was depressed. >> the message was there was something wrong with me and i should just die. >> it did not feel good to want what i thought everybody should want. it made me angry. >> there was a part of me that was ashamed. >> when the pain got too bad, i realized that i needed to tell my parents. >> i think i am gay. she said, i think i knew that. >> it was harder for me to tell my mom and my mom to hear me. >> i was a police officer for four years thinking i was the only gate police officer in the world. -- gay police officer in the world. >> my brothers were sort of

like, huh? >> their jaw dropped. >> i expected my father to have a different reaction than he did. he said, are you happy? i said, yes. he looked down and he said who gives a share it. - softball is the root of all gayness. i started crying and i broke down. i said i want you to know that i am gay. there was a long puase. -- pause. my grandfather, a typical person who would not accept somebody, he said, we love you.

>> my whole world opened up. >> selling at first person was a big deal. after the first few people, i just started acting like everybody should know this. i'm gay. >> this is who i am. >> i opened the door, my dad is out there. he looks at me and says, i am so sorry if i ever said fag. >> my life is great. >> i can be me.

>> loving i would have missed experiencing the the joy of life. people who show me amazing things all the time. new ways to think and look at the world. i never foresaw being a police officer. i thought it was something i could not do. >> things keep getting better for me. >> it gets better. i will help you. we are here to help make your transition as smooth as possible. >> it gets better. >> you have so many people who are just like you. >> things get better when you reach out to others. >> you have to tolerate that not acceptance. you forge ahead and do you do. -- do what you do.

>> nothing is worth harming yourself. nothing. >> you are completely normal. you just need to be you. >> you need to know you are beautiful. remember you are a person who has tremendous value. you have something to give. >> stop putting up with everyone's crap. be yourself. >> people might talk about you. there is help out there. >> yes, it will get better. >> it is way better. >> a lot better. >> it gets better. >> your life is going to be followed -- full of love. it gets better. [applause]

>> our next presenter will be director joyce hicks. >> good evening. members of the audience, i'm going to make this brief. i know that the use commission, you need to get home. i am a director of the office of complaints, also here it is sam, who is our policy analyst. it is my pleasure to be here to speak with you this evening about the policy work and about what to the office of citizens does. we are also known as the occ, the third largest agency in the united states, only surpassed in size by a new york city and chicago.

we were created by a board of supervisors in 1982. we went into operations. we are nearly 30 years old. we were originally in office a at the police department but now we are a separate office under the supervision of the san francisco police commission. aren't -- office investigate civilian complaints and we also make policy recommendations on the police department policy. the city charter provides that in addition to investigating complaints, the occ makes recommendations concerning policies and practices of the police department which could be changed or amended to avoid unnecessary tension with the public.

we have identified youth in san francisco as a definable segment of the public -- public to whom attention should be given. the goal of the office is to increase the trust in law enforcement by being a bridge between the public and the police in matters of police misconduct and policy. we have a mission to ensure police accountability by conducting fair and unbiased investigations and making recommendations on policies and practices. although only 3% of the complaints we receive or from use, we find those complaints important for making policy recommendations to the police department. those recommendations, many of them have been adopted by the police department and commission.

our office has worked with the san francisco police department and the u.s. commission on matters involving youth issues. we provide mediation as alternative to discipline when a person files a complaint, instead of our office investigating that complaint, there is an option that the person who complained and the officer can participate in a mediation. we have done that involving youth, parents, guardians and a police officer. when we do this, it allows the plaintiffs to resolve issues with the accused officer in person in a dispute format. the goal of this is to bring the involved parties together to achieve mutual understanding. we have heard a lot of testimony this evening about interactions

between youth and the police where there could have been a mutual understanding developed if a mediation had occurred. we provide a neutral mediator so for our program. -- mediators for our program. we are located on the seventh floor of -- we are easily accessible by public transportation. we receive walking complaints between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. monday through friday. we also received complaints by telephone and fax. you can file a complaint with your police station and it will be forwarded to us. our office is the verse. we are multi lingual. they speak languages including

cantonese, mandarin, spanish. two of our investigators are bilingual because the largest number of non-english interviews we conduct our in spanish. we also have interpretation services for languages that we do not cover. now, we will talk about youth- oriented policy issues. >> thank you for all your work. >> good evening, commissioners, members of the public, i appreciate your patience. i will be brief. i want to talk about the unsung heroes in this room and those who are invisible. the work we have done has been in partnership with the use

commissioned for almost a decade. because of complaints filed by a youth and family members, we were able to investigate those complaints and formulate recommendations to the police commission and to the police department. it was through the partnership with the commission, through some many meetings. some of you have been at those meetings. you have bet -- met with different members of the department to talk about instances of enhancing policies between the police department and the use. it has been a long and successful process. in 2008, because of the stories you told, the police department and police commission adopted some important provisions to give more protections when they are being arrested or investigated. so that now if you are taken

into custody, you have a right to have a parent or guardian present. you are given a brochure about the kinds of rights you have. this is a brochure that the use commission, many organizations came together and put together so that youth would have this information. we work with the department to talk about instances, having the department provide more protection so that custodial interrogations' would be tape- recorded so we would be able to have the best evidence of what had rick -- occurred. part of what we talk about was wanting to have parents and guardians involved in the get-go so there is a partnership between youth who are being investigated and for their families and so there is that involvement and so that instead